The Best Feeling
The streets weren’t always strewn with trash and devoid of people. In the 1930’s our block in a working class city neighborhood was usually filled with children playing, mothers sweeping sidewalks and fathers going off to work. Even when the weather was not so favorable, there would always be someone strolling along. Cars would pass by occasionally, but automobiles were a rarity except when my Uncle earl came to visit. We walked to church every Sunday morning. I would run along the street meeting up with friends. I didn’t look forward to sitting still in my itchy Sunday clothes but behaved under the watchful eye of my father. Afterwards we came home for a meal that my mother would fix of my father’s favorites. Those Sundays brought us together.
On one special Sunday, Uncle earl pulled up to our house in his new shiny black sedan. He never went to church with us. He was a unique fellow with a life that was a mystery to me. Our street was narrow and the large car seemed to fill it. Neighbors would stop what they were doing to watch him maneuver the sedan into a place in front of our tiny row home. My friends would jump on the running boards and peek into the windows Mother’s younger brother Earl achieved true celebrity status on our block.
On this day, he arrived at the door wearing his new black overcoat and felt hat. It kept him warm on a cold, dreary winter day. I didn’t understand what it meant when my mother described her younger brother as dapper. My father would frown and say that Earl was the black sheep of the family. On this day, he carried a small box into the house. I hoped it was something exciting for my ninth birthday. I rushed to the door to be the first to greet my favorite uncle. He always tousled my hair and pulled my ear he said “how ya doing young man!” I never minded at all.
The door to the vestibule opened. “Tie that shoe.” My mother warned me as my uncle swept into the house. The house buzzed with excitement. I bent over to fix my shoelace as my mother instructed and a warm, dizzy feeling washed over me. I thought it was just the thrill of Uncle Earl’s visit on my birthday. He was a traveling salesman and was away from home a great deal. “Take my coat, Mary’ Where’s the nine year old? He always looked straight ahead and didn’t notice my tiny frame under his nose. My uncle smiled as my mother ceremoniously hung up the heavy coat. I slowly stood up. Of course, he tousled my hair and pulled my ear.
“Look a little flushed there, Edward. Been running after the girls?”
My uncle laughed loudly and I could feel myself getting warmer. His laugh was part of his charm. My mother said that women flocked to my bachelor uncle and she wondered why he never took a wife. I thought that I would never be popular with girls like he was. When we settled down, the festivities began as we ate homemade cake. I couldn’t stop looking at the box. Uncle earl ceremoniously handed it to me covered with shiny blue paper.
“Well Eddie, open it up. Hope you like it.” Uncle earl smile.
“Thanks Uncle.” My hands shook as I pulled back the top. Inside was a gleaming tiny replica of Uncle Earl’s magnificent car.
“Gee whiz, I never saw anything like it. Wait until my friends see this. Oh thanks!” I held it up proudly and moved to kiss him on the cheek. He stiffened slightly and gave me a pat on the back. The afternoon went on with the adults drifting off into their conversations. I sat on the floor playing with my new car. My head was swirling. As I got up to say goodbye to Uncle earl, the dizziness overcame me.
When I opened my eyes, two strange looking men were wrapping me up in a scratchy blanket. I could faintly hear my mother’s voice.
“Please be careful, he’s so sick.” She pleaded.
“Don’t worry lady, they’ll take care of him at the hospital.”
I was too weak to ask questions. The men put me on the floor in the back of what I later found out was a city ambulance. I was lying next to other cocoons of children swathed in those scratchy blankets. I fell asleep as soon as the doors closed. Later I awoke in a hospital bed with metal sides. The blurt faces of two women stared back at me.
“Another scarlet fever. Take off all those clothes, put him in this gown.” She went away before I could speak, but the other woman stayed. She was a large woman with thick hands that grabbed my tiny frame moving me easily.
“You have scarlet fever son, son. I’ll be taking care of you for a while.”
“Where’s my mother?” I pleaded. I wanted to cry but held my breath because only a sissy cried.
“No visitors here. You have a bad sickness. Everyone with scarlet fever comes here. They’ll come get you when your’re better. Right nou you can say your prayers and try to sleep.”
“When will I leave?”
“Can’t say.” She left me in that bed. During the month long stay in that dreary place only the nurses and attendant who brought food spoke to me. A doctor came by to poke me with needles once in a while but never made conversation. I missed my parents and wished I could be walking down the street going off to church. I tried hard to remember my prayers and hope God would help me leave this lonely place.
One miraculous day, the nurse came to my bed carrying my black car from Uncle Earl.
“Eddie, your uncle brought this and said if you listen this afternoon, he’ll toot his car horn outside so you know he’s thinking of you.”
“Can’t I see him?”
She walked away without answering, leaving me with the car. The boy in the bed next to me admired it and said something unusual. “You have to believe he will come.” Then suddenly, I heard the car’s loud horn. I was not going to stay in that bed and miss seeing my uncle in his car. Climbing out of bed, I found that not having walked for almost a month made my legs weak. I couldn’t stand and fell to the cold hard linoleum floor.
“What are you doing, get back in bed!” The nurse stomped over then lifted me into bed. “You do not get up until I say so!”
“But my uncle, he’s outside.” My begging didn’t work.
“You’ll see your uncle soon enough.” She pointed her chubby finger in my face and marched away. Before she got to the door, she turned and glared at me.
“No bawling!”
The tears streamed down my face as I pushed my cheeks hard into the pillow. She wouldn’t give me a time when I would see him and I just couldn’t wait. Maybe no one remembered that I was there and I would be in that horrible place forever.
One morning not too long after my uncle appeared in the street, two attendants came in and lifted me out of bed. They helped me walk around the room and then put on my bathrobe and slippers over the hospital gown. I was taken down to a waiting area and sat on a chair by a smudged window. No one gave explanations to a nine-year-old boy. Finally, what seemed like an eternity passed with the sound of that familiar horn?
“Ride’s here boy. I’ll take you out.”
The attendant helped me up and walked me out to the street. There sat Uncle Earl in his shiny black car smiling from ear to ear. I did not feel the cold February winds blow as I got in the majestic black car.
“You’re going home, Eddie.” He tousled my hair and pulled my ear. I believed in him and he was there. I knew he loved me and it was the best feeling in the world.
Copyright © 2009 by Janice Jakubowitcz
Janice is a published writer and resident of